Archive for November, 2016

The leaders of two neighbouring Somali regions have agreed to respect a ceasefire whose repeated violations have claimed some 45 lives in recent weeks, the UN said on Sunday. President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali of Puntland and Abdilkarim Hussein Guled, his counterpart in Galmudug, met on Saturday in the central Somalia town of Galkayo – scene […]

Burundi’s president has asked the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a new envoy less than two weeks after the emissary returned from crisis talks in Bujumbura, according to a letter seen by AFP on Monday. President Pierre Nkurunziza said in the letter sent last week that Ban and incoming Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should […]

Tunisian authorities have discovered four arms caches in the south of the country near the border with war-ravaged Libya and seized large quantities of weapons, security sources said on Monday. Two were found Saturday near the city of Ben Guerdane, a third on Sunday and another on Monday also in the same region, they said.

Japan’s cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval for an additional mission for Japanese troops in South Sudan to assist the UN peacekeepers with rescue operations, a task opponents say would risk embroiling the troops in international fighting in violation of the country’s pacifist constitution.

Spokesman for the Libyan National Army said on Wednesday that his forces have controlled 70 percent of the country’s territories. “After retrieving the majority of homeland, we pledge to fight hard until the entire soil of Libya is freed from the grip of terrorist groups,” the army spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmary told reporters at Libya’s Embassy […]

US fighter aircraft carried out Monday night three airstrikes targeting houses in Al-Firda, Brak Al-Shatti, southern Libya, said the spokesman of the Third Force appointed to secure the southern region, Mohammed Gliwan.

The Algerian army has undertaken a four-day military training exercise south of Tindouf under the supervision of Gaid Salah, Chief of Staff of the Algerian army. For the second time this year, the National Popular Army (ANP) of Algeria carried out a live fire training exercise in an area dubbed Third Military Zone in Tindouf, […]

Egyptian-Tunisian partnership meetings will take place in Cairo in the first quarter of 2017, according to the recommendations adopted by the Tunisian-Egyptian Joint Chamber and published on Thursday in a press release by the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA). The Chamber, which met on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s meeting of the Tunisian-Egyptian […]

The Sudanese president ‘Omar Basher’ , has renewed his country’s support to the national accord government ‘NAG’ , and his rejection to “any foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Libya”. In the closed session of the African summit and Libya neighboring countries held in Addis Ababa , president Basher asserted on the necessity ; […]

The United Nations has appointed a new deputy head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to succeed Jordan Ali H. Al-Za’tari. Maria do Valle Ribeiro is to take over from Al-Za’tari. Ribeiro has around 30 years’ experience in the UN and working in international NGOs and has served as the UN Resident Coordinator, […]

Malta is hosting a Libyan political dialogue meeting which is being held under the auspices of the United Nations, together with the head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Martin Kobler. Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella, who addressed the meeting this morning, was quoted in a ministry press statement saying that Malta was […]

The Algerian government has decided to employ more sophisticated means to monitor its borders with Morocco by creating a system of technical surveillance and electronic borders, an official from the Ministry of Justice announced yesterday, Algeria’s state-run APS reported. “Both mobile and fixed means will be in place for securing and monitoring the borders,” the […]

A community leader says Nigerian security forces are trying to disarm explosives planted on a state-owned oil pipeline that has been attacked by militants twice recently. Dickson Ogugu, chairman of the Batan community, said the militants fled the pipeline after a shootout with armed guards. The militants then dynamited a barge, which sank on Tuesday.

The first of around 1 000 Kenyan soldiers returned from South Sudan on Wednesday as the government followed through on a threat to withdraw from the UN peacekeeping mission. The first batch of 100 troops landed in Nairobi a week after Kenya said it would pull out in protest at a UN decision to fire […]

The International Criminal Court is committed to making Libya a priority next year and expanding investigations, potentially including alleged serious crimes by the extremist Islamic State group and its affiliates, the prosecutor said on Wednesday. Fatou Bensouda told the UN Security Council that her commitment is the result of a number of factors: widespread violence, […]

Over 30 UN peacekeepers were hurt in a blast which hit the eastern Congolese city of Goma, Tuesday morning. The 32 peacekeepers from India were part of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). According to a senior eastern DRC police officer, Robert Leku, an 8-year-old girl was also […]

Libyan forces in the final stages of a six-month campaign to recapture Sirte from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said they freed 14 civilians on Nov. 6 from a small residential area where some militants are holding out. The forces, composed of fighters mainly from Misrata, say they are exercising caution […]

Egypt’s foreign affairs minister Sameh Shoukry headed on Monday to Addis Ababa to attend an African Union (AU) meeting on behalf of the president on the current situation in Libya, a ministry statement read. The meeting will include officials from Libya, Congo, Uganda, Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger and Tunisia, along with members of the […]

The US has expressed readiness to resume its air attacks on IS in Libya if requested by the UN-brokered Government of National Accord. “We can resume airstrikes on IS in Libya upon the government’s call, although the militants are now in poor control of Libyan territories” The Pentagon said on Monday. “If additional air strikes […]

At least 25 soldiers were killed in weekend fighting between rival Puntland and Galmudug regional forces in the Somali town of Galkayo, military officials on both sides said Monday. “We have lost 12 men and there are more than 10 wounded,” said Puntland commander Jumale Jama Takar, while his Galmudug counterpart Abdirahman Qoje said: “We […]

An official in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive northeast region says an unexplained grenade explosion has killed two people and injured 31 peacekeepers. Julien Paluku, governor of North Kivu province, said the explosion occurred on Tuesday morning as the peacekeepers were exercising on the outskirts of Goma, the provincial capital on the Rwandan border.

Five soldiers were killed and four others missing following an attack on Tuesday in southwest Niger close to the border with Mali. “This terrorist attack against the town of Banibangou killed five soldiers, injured three and four others were reported missing,” said the source, who requested anonymity. A Niger official also confirmed the attack which […]

Seven African leaders met at the African Union headquarter in Ethiopia on Tuesday to launch a new initiative to solve the 5-year-old Libyan crisis. “Africa today is affected by the disastrous consequences of the Libyan crisis,” said Idris Deby, President of Chad and chairperson of the African Union.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held talks with deputy-chief of Libyan Presidential Council (PC) Fathi al-Majburi here on Thursday, highlighting dialogue and agreement among Libyan parties as key to unity of the conflict-stricken country, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement. Ahmed Abu Zeid, the ministry’s spokesman, said that the ministry attaches great interest […]

The US State Secretary said on Friday he will discuss with UN Secretary General Designate Antonio Guterres world challenges, like Syria, Yemen, Libya and the Middle East peace process. During the newly-elected UN chief’s visit to Washington the two will also discuss Afghanistan, the threat of failure of states around the world, weapons, human trafficking […]

The number of refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) will reach up to over 275,000 in Cameroon in 2017 due to the persistent violence in the country, the United Nations said. According to statistics, Cameroon has received 253,000 refugees from CAR so far in 2016.

Burundi is threatening to withdraw its peacekeepers from Somalia and the Central African Republic over leadership issues and plans to pay peacekeepers directly, two Burundian ministers have told Burundian lawmakers in a plenary session. “Burundian soldiers are not given leadership positions at the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Another problem is that there are […]

Two terrorists have been killed and two Kalachnikov machine pistols were recovered by a detachment of the People’s National Army (ANP) on Friday in Jijel, said a communiqué of the National Defence Ministry (MDN). “As part of the fight against terrorism and following an ambush, an Army detachment killed, on 4 November 2016 at 12:00, […]

Algeria and Mali on Friday in Bamako, expressed “satisfaction” with the progress made in the application of the Malian peace and national reconciliation agreement, which resulted from Algiers Process. “The two parties noted with satisfaction, the progress made in the implementation of the Malian peace and national reconciliation agreement, which resulted from Algiers Process, and […]

Kenya announced on Wednesday it was withdrawing from United Nations peacekeeping duties in South Sudan after the UN chief Ban Ki-moon fired the Kenyan head of the force for failing to protect civilians. Continued deployment of Kenyan troops in South Sudan “is no longer tenable”, the foreign ministry said, declaring that the country would “withdraw, […]

The United Nations will do “everything in its power” to prevent further atrocities in the Central African Republic, a top UN official said on Thursday at the end of a three-day visit. The UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson was addressing lawmakers in the capital Bangui a day after Human Rights Watch called on the […]

President of the Presidency Council, Fayez Saraj met Tuesday in London with British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, US Secretary of State, John Kerry, Italian Foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni and representative of the French Foreign Ministry. Head of UNSMIL, Martin Kobler was also present at the meeting. Several issued were addressed in the meeting related to […]

The Misurata-led forces have gained new foot in more areas inside the last IS spot in Sirte, the seaside Jizah neighbourhood, the media bureau of the UN-brokered Government of National Accord’s Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous operation reported Wednesday. On Facebook, the media bureau added that the Misurata-led forces had controlled new sites after they closed in on […]

Cambodia has dispatched the third batch of 216 peacekeepers to join a UN peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) Wednesday, officials said. Speaking at the departure ceremony held at Phnom Penh Military Airbase, Gen. Pol Saroeun, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, said the troops would replace the second group’s forces who […]